By Becky Walz,
The Decorah baseball team (19-5, 14-1 NEIC) made it a six-game win streak Tuesday night with a come from behind 7-4 win over Waverly-Shell Rock (20-6, 11-4 NEIC) in game one of the final NEIC contest of the season. The Vikings secured the conference title for the first time since 2010 with the win despite giving up game two to the Go-Hawks, 8-2.
“We were really happy with the resilience our kids showed to pull together a nice team win after struggling early in the game both offensively and defensively,” said Coach Adam Riley. “In game two we did not throw and catch the baseball well enough to deserve to win the ball game.”
In the first game, the Vikings struggled to get on base early. Tyler Thompson smacked out the first base hit of the game in the fourth inning while the Go-Hawks put up four runs to lead 4-0. James Marx would score Decorah’s first run of the contest in the fifth after being issued a walk and advancing to second on a Kyle Renken hit. Cael Luzum cleared the bases ahead of him with a two-RBI triple to cut the lead to 4-2.
Decorah had two more chances at bat to trim the advantage and take the lead, which the Vikes did in the seventh. Walks to Kody Bodensteiner and Renken set the stage for a big inning with Luzum driving in his third run of the game with a single. Briggs Duwe tagged a ball to send Renken home for the tying run. Not done yet, Thompson put the Vikings ahead with a single to left field and Keenan Tyler scored Duwe to give Decorah a 6-4 advantage.
After six solid innings by Luzum on the mound with six strikeouts, Cai Brevig climbed the hill for the save in the seventh as the Viking defense sat down the Go-Hawks in order to end the game.
The nightcap didn’t go as smoothly for Decorah as the Vikings were limited to eight baserunners on five hits, scoring one run in the first and one in the fourth.
Duwe tagged two balls for hits, while Tyler, Noah Storts and Drew Snyder all collected singles. Brevig took the loss in four innings of work with six strikeouts.
This week
The Vikes entertained Columbus Wednesday and will pack their bags for a non-conference JV/varsity doubleheader at MFL MarMac Thursday, July 1 at 5:30 p.m. Decorah will also be on the road Friday, July 2, at Oelwein with the JV first pitch slated for 5 p.m.
R H E
Decorah 0 0 0 0 2 0 4 6 7 7
W-SR 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 5 0
Cael Luzum (WP) – 6IP, 4R, 1ER, 5H, 2BB, 6K; Cai Brevig (Save) – 1IP
3B – Luzum 1; 1B – Tyler Thompson 2; Luzum 1; Briggs Duwe 1; Keenan Tyler 1; Kyle Renken 1; RBI – Luzum 3; Duwe 1; Thompson 1; Tyler 1
R H E
Decorah 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 5 1
W-SR 3 1 0 3 0 1 x 8 10 2
Brevig (LP) – 4IP, 7R, 6ER, 8H, 2BB, 6K; Gunnar Steine (RP) – 2IP, 1R, 1ER, 2H, 1BB, 4K
1B – Duwe 2; Tyler 1; Noah Storts 1; Drew Snyder 1; RBI – Storts 1; SB – Duwe 3; Ben Wymer 1; Kody Bodensteiner 1
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